Stories that make you go hmmmm .....

[beachmom]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/10/AR2009071002936.html

White House Fault Lines


By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, July 12, 2009

Surprised to see the news the other day that the Obama administration is sending an ambassador back to Syria? So were officials in Hillary Clinton's State Department. They were still hoping to win more movement from Damascus on Middle East issues when President Obama's decision was leaked.

The diplomatic consequences of a rare crossed wire within this controlled administration are difficult to measure. Syria was being asked to help stop terrorist acts such as the bombings that hit northwestern Iraq last week, diplomatic sources tell me. But Syrian promises on terrorism are notoriously unreliable. Little of substance may have been lost by the poorly timed disclosure.

A lapse on message control is nonetheless a significant event in Team Obama's foreign policy. As a candidate, Obama honed communications management to a high art, and his closest advisers have instilled it at the top of their hierarchy of values.